


Turn The Lights Off, I’m In Love

by godamnarmsrace



Series: My Tumblr Ask Love Reply Fics [5]
Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Fluffy Boys, M/M, Robert can't lie to Aaron, Robert's reads, Sick Aaron, Sleepy Cuddles, Sleepy aaron, don't freak it's just a cold, married era, pretty husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-29
Updated: 2017-04-29
Packaged: 2018-10-25 06:45:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10758891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godamnarmsrace/pseuds/godamnarmsrace
Summary: Aaron has a little cold and Robert finishes a book - cute boy stuff in bed.





	Turn The Lights Off, I’m In Love

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the lovely [@vicbartons](https://vicbartons.tumblr.com/) and edited by [@blueswinseverytime](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewinseverytime/pseuds/Bluewinseverytime).
> 
> Title from The Brobecks - Love At First Sight

 

Robert shut his book and put it on the bedside table. It had been a good read, set in another time, incredibly romantic but terribly sad.

Provoking.

With the rain coming down outside on the roof of the Mill and Aaron snoring lightly next to him, Robert was content for a moment to just think. How hard it must have been in the past, to love another man. Not that loving Aaron had ever been easy, but then easy usually equalled boring so that was probably a good thing. But to never be able to marry the one you love, never hold them in public, never kiss them in street, never touch hands even briefly in case it is taken for something more.

After having what he had, loving Aaron the way he did, Robert knew it would have driven him mad. He couldn’t believe that even now, in this day and age, there were still places where their love was a forbidden thing, something to be ridiculed, arrested and worse killed for.

That they could give their love so freely, after all, they’d both been through, would never be something Robert could take for granted. They had fought too hard to get to where they were now but he’d never really thought about what their love might mean to other people. Not really. Not outside the fear of Chrissie finding out back when he was still hiding behind their marriage. There was fear but no danger.

Marriage, theirs had been a mistake, a faded image of the real thing, Robert didn’t even understand what the word meant until Aaron had slipped the ring on his finger in Cain’s dirty garage.

Robert started to turn off the lamp but then reconsidered, he turned so that he was laying on his side facing Aaron.

Like this, asleep Aaron looked younger than his twenty-five years, a small cold was causing a light wheeze to his breathing and a red tinge to his nose but otherwise, he was peaceful. Robert knew Aaron would pull a face if he was to call him beautiful but he was, his features soft and relaxed, there was an innocence to Aaron that Robert took great pleasure in trying to corrupt on a daily basis and yet he was always just still Aaron.

Unable to resist Robert ran a gentle touch of his fingers across Aaron’s brow, down his cheek until he was cupping the back of his neck. He shifted until he was just a breath away and they were sharing the same air, just as they shared everything else, Robert nuzzled his nose against Aaron’s own.

“I love you,” he whispered into the dim light, his words merely a shadow of his true feelings for this man.

Aaron stirred. “You’ll get sick Rob,” he groaned even as he curled his body in closer to Robert’s.

“I don’t care. Go back to sleep,” Robert said brushing a kiss on Aaron’s warm forehead.

“How was your book?” Aaron whispered against Robert’s shoulder where he had his face burrowed.

“It was about love,” Robert said, his voice soft.

“Did it have a happy ending?” Aaron asked around a yawn.

“Yes,” Robert lied. "Now go to sleep".

“Liar,” Aaron accused and it was just yet another reason why Robert loved him so, Aaron's ability to see through his bullshit was everything.

“They both died alone in the end after never ever truly being together.  It made me think about Chrissie and what might have happened if we’d never met,” Robert confessed.

“You probably would have lived happily ever after with a bunch of fancy motors,” Aaron guessed rubbing his running nose on Robert.

Robert reached out a grabbed a tissue and handed to Aaron before saying, “Maybe, I wouldn’t have known what I was missing, or maybe I would have felt like something was always missing, I guess we’ll never know. But know this Aaron Sugden, I know what I have in you and I’m never letting you go, okay?”

Aaron let out a snort which turned into a coughing fit and ended with him saying, “As if I’d let you let me go Robert Dingle.”

Robert smiled and switched off the light. He held everything he never knew he wanted or needed in his arms and he had no intention of wasting any more time on what ifs.


End file.
